Tag: Michael North

Curse the Day by Judith O’Reilly: A Technothriller/Conspiracy Novel filled with Action (and some low tech solutions)

Curse the Day

Curse the Day

by Judith O’Reilly
Series: Michael North, #2

Kindle Edition, 331 pg.
Head of Zeus, 2020

Read: August 24-25, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

He wanted to meet whoever had hacked that car. Then he wanted to punch them in the face. Because someone had tried to kill him and the innocent woman alongside him. And call him old- fashioned, but that made him mad. And an angry Michael North was someone who might just kill someone right back.

What’s Curse the Day About?

Killing State‘s ending pretty much broke Michael North*. When the book opens, he’s trying to drink and gamble himself into oblivious rather than dealing with the emotional fallout.

* which is ironic, because the rest of the book was pretty much about him coming back to life.

And then an old acquaintance from MI-6 shows up with a job. His niece is an ethicist married to one of the most innovative computer scientists around, who is on the verge of a major announcement in the development of AI. But someone is trying to interfere with that announcement, and have tried to kill his niece. He wants North to sober up and protect her. To guarantee his cooperation, he’s arranged for Fang’s mother to be arrested and is threatening to deport her and send her back to China. It’s this, and only this, that compels North to action.

Fang’s waiting for him—and is full of less than supportive things to say about his recent activity, but she’s more than ready to help him. Not just for her mother’s sake. Also, not just because this kind of AI is the stuff she dreams of. Despite their brief acquaintance, she really likes North and wants to help.

Narrowing down the source of the threat is difficult—there’s some industrial espionage afoot, some not very covert efforts by Chinese representatives to gain control of the technology, and some British military types heavily invested, too. One of the adversaries North faces off with is straight out of a Bond movie, while the others are more…down to Earth (at least by the standards contemporary thrillers). I’m not sure which I prefer—I just like to know that against North, both types of adversary have their work cut out for them.

It’s clear what North will do to whoever’s behind the attacks, the question is, what will it take for him to figure out the responsible parties.

So, what did I think about Curse the Day?

Life wasn’t grey– it was black and white, there was good and there was evil, and he knew how far he was prepared to go for the sake of the good.

I have a hard time not recommending a book with such moral clarity (even if the protagonist who holds that clarity needs some work on how to live out that morality).

I’ve read entire books that managed to have less tension than the prologue to this novel, and it was enough to instantly get me engaged and invested in the outcome.

But after that, I think the novel didn’t grab me as much as I wanted it to. Killing State was, in many ways, about North casting off the restraints that held him back (professionally, emotionally, mentally), and Curse the Day didn’t have much of that. At least a couple of times, North compares Esme and Honor (the woman he was protecting in Killing State)—even seems to realize that he’s trying to make Esme into a version of Honor, to react to her the same way. And it just doesn’t work for him—or me—she’s not Honor, as much as he might want her to be. Possibly in Book 3 he won’t be looking for another Honor and will be able to focus on the tasks at hand, or come up with a new way to emotionally invest.

This didn’t work for me the way that Killing State did, but I’m still coming back for more, and fully expect O’Reilly to knock my socks off again, even if she didn’t this time out. But it was a clever story, and I particularly liked spending time with Fang (and look forward to seeing what trouble she gets into with her new toy).

Curse the Day‘s biggest problem was that it wasn’t Killing State and if I read this one first, I probably would’ve enjoyed it more. It was tense, well-paced, with just the right number of twists and unexpected developments. Everything a thriller needs, and because of that, I have no problem encouraging you to read it. You’ll probably like it more than I did. And even if you don’t, you’ll still have a pretty fun time.


3 Stars

20 Books of Summer
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Killing State by Judith O’Reilly: I Can’t Suitably Encapsulate this Gripping Thriller

Killing StateKilling State

by Judith O’Reilly
Series: Michael North, #1

Kindle Edition, 496 pg.
Head of Zeus, 2019

Read: March 5 – 7, 2019

           “You should come with me.”

He turned over the offer in his mind.

Why would he?

Because she was stop-your-heart beautiful.

Then again, the world teemed with beautiful women. Because he wanted to know how it ended.

Badly, he predicted.

What happens when an assassin doesn’t get the expected reaction from his target? Honor Jones, MP, tells him to let her finish her cigarette and asks him a question, “Where’s Peggy?” The assassin in question, Michael North, doesn’t know who Peggy is, much less where she is. What he does know is that he can’t kill this woman — maybe it’s because (unlike the rest of his targets) he wasn’t given a reason for her execution, maybe it’s her attitude, maybe he’s just getting tired of killing (not to be confused with Martin Q. Blank’s newfound respect for life) — certainly her beauty doesn’t hurt.

His refusal to kill her doesn’t go down well with his employer — an extra-governmental body dedicated to the preservation of the British government. That morning, he’s contacted in person with strict instructions to get the job done or face the (fatal) consequences. Instead, North tried to get her out of the country and ends up saving her from a different assassin. Not very shockingly, North also finds instructions to kill him on this assassin’s corpse. By this point, North is smitten with Honor and is committed (whether either of them consciously realize it) to helping her survive and find her friend Peggy.

At the moment, it’s clear that Honor’s search for her dear friend is tied to the kill order. Peggy’s an astronomer, largely apolitical, and not tied to any endeavor that would normally put her on the radar of anyone outside of astronomical/academic circles. Nevertheless, she’s somehow set these dominoes falling, and now Honor and North are running from killers across the country as they seek to learn why Peggy has disappeared.

This hunt for Peggy will push North and Honor to — and past — their limits. It will see them both injured. Both under threat of grave bodily harm (and death) through violence — and both will have to take steps to defend themselves. Around them, the culture and government face shifts and challenges from within that threaten to change everything that Britons know about themselves. On top of all that — there are some great character moments, real growth and change that happen ways that you can believe — not just the clear result of authorial fiat, but because that’s what happens when people face what they did.

Plots involving large-scale conspiracies frequently leave me cold — O’Reilly not only convinces me that her conspiracy is worth reading, but she’s effective enough with it to make me enjoy it. I struggle to accept plots involving psychiatric professionals and loved ones trying to convince a character that the reality they know (and the audience knows) isn’t real, but is the result of delusion brought on by some psychological condition. Now this one isn’t as involved as say, “Normal Again” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it’s there — and O’Reilly sticks with it long enough to accomplish what she needs to for her story, but she doesn’t milk drama out of it. There are a few other things like this — tricks, plotlines, tropes — that I typically avoid or get annoyed by, but I accepted and enjoyed here.

My notes are filled with “O’Reilly isn’t going to try ___, is she?” entries, followed by “Yeah, she is — and it works.” She squeezes in so many of these things that I’m tempted to doubt my memory about them — and I’m writing this less than a day after I read it! For reasons of space, time, and readability I’ve limited myself in what I’ve addressed in this post. I had a lot of other things I wanted to say, and even had drafts talking about. But I ended up restricting myself — not just because of spoilers (though, as always, that’s part of it) — but because O’Reilly stuffs this novel with so many ideas, plot points and details that I can’t talk about it all without the post becoming unreadable. I don’t know how she manages to put it all in while maintaining the pounding pace. It’s truly noteworthy and laudable that she pulls it off. I can’t even express this without producing an ungainly paragraph.

Michael North is a larger-than-life character, but honestly more grounded in reality than many assassin/lone warrior types in Thriller fiction. Part of that comes from O’Reilly’s restraint in describing him — he’s never depicted as anything superlative. He’s simply a skilled and surprisingly dedicated combat veteran in a series of tight situations that even he is shocked that he survives as long as he does.

Similarly, Honor is one of many beautiful women in the world (as North himself notes above) — she’s one of many dedicated elected public servants, she’s one of many people who’ve overcome difficult pasts thanks to the help of a friend/loved one. She also isn’t depicted as a superlative anything — just the right person in the right place at the right time. Even if that right place is in front of Michael North’s knife. And yes, the name Honor is ripe with possibilities and symbolism — O’Reilly takes advantage of it. Not as much as some authors would’ve, but she gets her money’s worth out of the name.

There is an plausibility-stretching character — a young computer whiz (actually, she’s something beyond whiz, but I can’t think of a term that fits her), who North allies himself with temporarily. But between her attitude and role in the overall story, I can’t see any reader not suspending disbelief enough to embrace her.

Most of this book takes place in moral gray areas (as it almost has to given North’s profession), but that doesn’t stop O’Reilly’s villains from clearly being villains and her heroes clearly being heroic. Killing State doesn’t try to go for some sort of situational ethics or a “yes, but” approach to the morality of te characters — which may or may not have been successful.

The plot moves like the proverbial roller coaster — ups, downs, rushes, and loops all at a pace that you just hope to keep up with. Fair warning — once the hook is set (and it’ll be early on), you won’t want to put the book down and you’ll likely get in trouble with deadlines and schedules. Things won’t really end the way you expect them to — I had a handful of expected conclusions that I had to discard along the way (although some I didn’t have to discard until the last moments) — but when you’re finished with the book, you’ll likely realize that there’s no other way for things to have fallen out.

There’s a sequel expected later this year — I honestly can’t imagine that it’ll be able to live up to this. But I wouldn’t put it past O’Reilly to confound my expectations again. I had a lot of fun with this novel and was regularly impressed with O’Reilly (and North and Honor). I expect that I’m not alone, and soon I’ll see a lot of very positive buzz surrounding this book.


My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the book) they provided.

—–

4 Stars

Head of Zeus
Love Books Group

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Killing State by Judith O’Reilly

Today I welcome the Book Tour for the gripping Killing State by Judith O’Reilly. Along with this spotlight post, I’ll be giving my take on the novel here in a bit.

Book Details:

Book Title: Killing State by Judith O’Reilly
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Release date: March 7, 2019
Format: Hardcover/ebook
Length: 496 pages
Killing State Cover

Book Blurb:

WHAT IF THE PERSON YOU’RE ORDERED TO KILL IS THE WOMAN YOU WANT TO PROTECT?

Michael North, assassin and spy-for-hire, is very good at killing bad guys. But what happens when his shadowy bosses at the dark heart of the post-Brexit British government, order him to kill an innocent woman and North can’t bring himself to do it?

The woman is rising political star, Honor Jones, MP. She has started asking dangerous questions about the powerful men running her country. The trouble is, Honour doesn’t know when to stop. And, now that he’s met her, neither does North…

Praise for Killing State:

“A terrific future-shock thriller.” Lee Child
“Fast-paced and packed with action.” Mick Herron
“A gritty, action-packed page-turner.” Andy McNab
“New thriller writers come and go. I suspect this lady will stick around.” Frederick Forsyth
“Thought-provoking, pacy and thrilling.” Sunday Mirror
“Gripping and twisty” India Knight
“Grabs you from page one and won’t let you go… Action-packed from start to finish – but with tenderness and great characterisation too. Fast, sharply-written, clever and intense.” Jeremy Vine, BBC2
“A high-octane plot that centres around the dark heart of British political power. A great debut.” Sunday Times

About Judith O’Reilly:

Judith O'ReillyJudith O’Reilly is the author of Wife in the North, a top-three Sunday Times bestseller and BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Judith is a former political producer with BBC 2’s Newsnight and ITN’s Channel 4 News, and, when she isn’t writing novels, she writes for The Sunday Times. Judith lives in Durham.

Judith O’Reilly’s Social Media:

Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook



My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the book) they provided.

Head of Zeus
Love Books Group

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